Venue: Budapest Operetta Theater

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One of the biggest successes of last seasons remains on the programme! If you want to see this fantastically spectacular performance, it would be worth thinking about booking well in advance!

Refined French taste has always set the trend in gastronomy, fashion and design, as well as in culture and the arts. In recent years this influence has reached musical theatre too. The musical has been enriched with new colours and tastes in the studios of Paris. The cult of beauty, playfulness and sentimentality has imbued and brought new life to the stagnat-ing Anglo-Saxon genre; in place of a special treat for a narrow, theatre-going stratum it has been transformed into a commu-nity event.

The musicals Notre Dame de Paris and more recently Romeo and Juliet have been seen by great numbers in long production runs in the Palais des Sports seating thousands or the Palais des Congrès. Everyone is familiar with the story of the musical based on Shakespeare's play.

In the words of Gerard Presgurvic, the composer and librettist: "Romeo is the most romantic and most tragic play in world literature. It would be hard to find a better subject for a good musical. It has everything: hate, love,misunderstanding, death, wedding, freedom. Besides all this I have attempted to use Romeo and Juliet to discover many new and timely feelings in myself."

The show is realised with the authorization of the original right owners, Netanya-Servicios de Consultoria LDA.

The opening of the original, French version was on the 19th of January, 2001 in Palais des Congres, Paris.
Directed by: Redha, Set design: Petrika Ionesco, Costume design: Dominique Borg, Lighting: Antonio de Carvalho

Until the beginning of World War I. the building housed an orpheum bar. When the war broke out "the palace of entertainment" closed, marking the end of the golden age of the orpheum. This is meant the end of what was later nostalgically called "the happy times of peace."

In 1923 the city of Budapest decided to give the genre of operetta a home of its own. With the opening of the Metropolitan Operetta Theatre the Hungarian capital saw the beginning of the "silver operetta" period by giving a new and permanent home to the genre after Népszínház and Király Színház. In the history of the theatre the most important thing was to cherish the traditions of the classic operetta while enriching it with modern artistic solutions. Next to Vienna Budapest is the other capital of the operetta and anyone who comes to our theatre can see the high quality of the genre represented here.

The Operetta Theatre's present house was built after the plans of the famous Viennese architect-duo Fellner and Helmer in 1894. The spacious stage of the main auditorium were surrounded by intimate booths in a half-circle on both sides, while a dance floor ensured enough room for the waltz, polka, mazurka and the galopp. Its decorative winter garden housed the most exquisite French restaurant, while on the street front a concert café was opened.

In 1966 the building was rearranged, whereby the inner architecture and rooms were changed to a great extent. Between 1999 and 2001 it was completely refurbished. The most modern European stage technology was built in and the beautiful original decoration was regained along with the balcony row of the auditorium.

Today the theatre has 901 seats in an air-conditioned auditorium.

The former objects which remained in the building - lamp statues and columns keeping the row of boxes - are in perfect harmony with the new colourful glass windows, the mirrors, the period furniture of the buffet and the wooden floor.

The auditorium is lit by a hundred-year old chandelier. The row of boxes, the golden stuccos, the walls dressed in velvet and the allegorical statuettes decorating the entrance elevate your theatre evening into a real feast.

The inner space was designed by Mária Siklós and Gábor Schinagl. The management of the Budapest Operetta Theatre considers it its duty to work as a multifunctional cultural centre in local art and social like in this beautifully refurbished building of old grandeur.

Today

In these days under the direction of Miklós-Gábor Kerényi - KERO®, the Budapest Operetta and Musical Theatre consists of two departments, which present classic Hungarian operettas, contemporary Hungarian musicals, and literature or history-based youth oriented pieces. With 500 annual shows and 400 thousand spectators this theatre is the most popular one of Hungary today.

Hungarian operetta playing - its passionate and fiery temper, its virtuoso dances and enchanting visuals - is well-known and acknowledged throughout the world. "There are several music venues in each city, where you can listen to good music, but operetta has only one address: Nagymező street 17, Budapest" - wrote the journal Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, when Budapest Operetta and Musical Theatre first presented The Gypsy Princess in Germany. In the last few years Gerard Presgurvic's Romeo and Juliet - based on Shakespeare's world-famous drama - has been the most popular show in Hungary and last year Sylvester Levay's Rebecca - based on Daphne du Maurier's novel - drew the most spectators.

The creative team of the theatre plays a vital part in staging these works in co-production with the theatres of Saint Petersburg, Bucharest, Yekaterinburg, Prague, Salzburg and Erfurt and its company regularly presents gala shows in several countries in Europe and Asia. In 2011, the theatre won the exclusive rights to play the musical 'The Beauty and the Beast' in Germany (Munich, Cologne, Dresden, Mannheim and Düsseldorf, respectively) and Austria. After the successful Lehár and Lévay singing competitions, the theatre (that has been granted a SuperBrand status this year) is going to organize the Imre Kálmán International Operetta-Musical Conductor Competition in 2012.

The written and the electronic media discuss new premieres and show in their central pages, while commercials and promotion are sponsored by the most significant Hungarian media.

The theatre's leading soloists are real stars, who excel with their achievements and personalities and who enjoy the attention of the media.

CD-d and DVD-s of shows soon become gold and platina albums and DVD-s sell in the thousands.

Tens of thousands of young fans follow the events at the theatre and wait for the actors at the stage door. They analyze and discuss shows on internet forums and are present at every important event, which the theatre e-mails them about.